House OKs defense bill over White House protests

WASHINGTON – Brushing aside objections from the White House, the House of Representatives on Thursday passed a $690 billion defense spending bill that would expand the president’s authority to pursue terrorists around the world while limiting the government’s options for prosecuting detainees.

The bill would fund the Pentagon and provide $119 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Senate has yet to pass its own version.

Both of Maine’s Democratic House members voted against the bill.

Rep. Chellie Pingree said it gives the president “nearly unlimited power” to use military force without congressional approval. Pingree also opposes the $15 billion in additional spending on the war in Afghanistan.

“Instead of bringing an end to the war in Afghanistan, this bill would authorize more war spending and an expansion of the use of military force,” said Pingree, a member of the House Armed Services Committee.

Rep. Mike Michaud said that “during a time of soaring budget deficits, this bill does little to nothing to significantly curtail defense spending. For example, it authorizes $100 million more in missile defense spending than the president requested.”

Michaud also said that the bill grants too much power to the president to wage war.

The White House supports some parts of the bill, but has threatened a veto over several provisions. Two days of debate and consideration of 152 amendments failed to produce any concessions to the White House objections.

One provision would prevent the government from transferring detainees currently held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to the United States to be tried in federal court. The White House called the provision “a dangerous and unprecedented challenge” to executive branch authority.

But House Republicans — and some Democrats — weren’t moved by that argument and instead added a measure that imposes further limits on the administration’s authority by requiring that all foreign nationals accused of participating in terrorist attacks be tried by military commission, not in federal court.

The bill that passed Thursday would no longer require that targets have a connection to Sept. 11, instead granting the president authority to “use all necessary and appropriate force during the current armed conflict with al-Qaida, the Taliban and associated forces.”

A bipartisan group of lawmakers, arguing that the provision gives the White House too much power and undercuts Congress’ authority, launched a failed effort to strike the language from the bill.

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